Tiapan

You just gave me a really great idea of what to do with a chinch of 2” plate I got. I will add it to my pile of projects.

Sorry about the pictures being small this go round, loaded ok last time. The Railroad Track has been retired as primary anvil. i replaced it with a 90 lbs Solid Bar. Thats why I altered it into a cut off. I will work at flattening and smoothing the main hammer more ( I just wanted to take off all of the Factory Edges) And I was thinking about widening the pien more. But yes its a steel hammer. It got a good work out the other day, did a fair job. I basically finished up that cross I was working on, and made a short coal/charcoal rake (read that as a messed up bottle opener repurposed)

So I have been hard at work improving some of my gear and making it more purpose ready. Here are some before and after pics. Cross pine was just reshaping and rounding of edges. The sheet metal hammer or what're type with weird shaped pine I made into a handled punch/drift to be hit with a dead hammer, and my piece or rr track has a corner shaped to use as a cutter(worked pretty good earlier today, first successful hot cutting) and the middle web into a fuller or to be used like a horn at least for bending. All work was done by hand with a large file, and a belt for a sander, just no sander other then hands. Would have used the grinder but didn't want to risk waking little one from nap.

When I first got interested in this "hobby,trade,obsession" it was hole in the ground forge, and an unsecured piece of rail. Man did that thing bounce around. Then I stood up the rail and has it in a bucket but I did not secure the sides. And if I struck off center it would shift right over. So I searched, and searched, and looked some more. Scrap yard after yard. When I found this bar which was the closest I had found I was like,Hurray!!!. But I knew I would need to keep it upright and straight better then my previous piece of rail. so I tried the shimming you see and it held really well. The piece of rail is going to get put back to work real soon after some alterations. Many have done similar in previous posts, going to make parts of the webbing into fullers, and a cut off, I am also thinking of bolting on some heavy square pipe opposite my post vice to use as either a light hardie hole(for say bending jigs) or a hole to finish punching through. Not 100percent on that yet.

I concur about that pattern. It truly is amazing

I did punch a few small holes, my first piece of rail does have some serious rust, but I will be covering either with a tarp or smoker covers (have several of both). And the steal bar for my anvil was a lucky find, found a scrap yard that let me look around and it was almost buried under a big pile, there were several pieces much larger but since they would not fit in my little vehicle and were much to heavy for me to move by myself, I stuck with that piece which cost me $.30'cents a pound and weighs 90 lbs.

So I have been a lurker on this site for quite some time. I have had set back and set back. But I am pleased to announce that my forge area is running, ( not complete but functional) and got a good bit done towards my first Fredricks cross. I ran out of time to finish up the cross, was setting up my "anvil" and forge, and had to finish cuting the blank for the cross (hacksaw) and smoothing my hammer (hand sanding).

I agree with the SCA fighter that all parts of a weapon can be useful, in fact the hilt of a two handed sword was often used against armor because it was hard to cut through plate, and thats simpler then a thrust. however I am going to have to disagree that a sword it easier to wield then an axe. Axes were a favored weapon for a very long time. Particularly in Europe and are very useful in combat. Plus simply saying sword doesnt begin to cover what the word describes. there is a big difference between a gladius and a Katana and how they were used.

Just freakin amazing

I freakin love these knives. I was wondering what tempering temp you used on these. A lot of the material I plan on working with is leaf springs ( just got a dozen for scrap prices).

I was curious what temp you tempered the mini blades and gigs to.

Man you beat me to it. I was planning on doing something like that with several of my spikes when I get my shop area set up. What i was curious about was How you did your heat treatment of the blade. Most people i Know use brine or water (or really fast oil) for Spike quenching. But did you quench differently because of the 1095 core. also how large was the bit of 1095 that you welded in, and or how deep did you split the RR spike. I was thinking of using some slivers of L6 from saw blades (the little cut out sections from when i cut up the blades to make other knife blades) or maybe some garage door springs which are around 1/4inch or larger round stock.

Wow that fork idea is great, especially for me because I dont have a normal anvil but my large post vise can hold that just fine.

wow that site was great. Either way all of the blades looked especially functional. It amazes me so much how people will banter about what is the best cutting instrument and which blade is better then this one or the other. (similar arguments about bullets and firearms go on for days on other forums) But what is certain is that JB was a nasty knife fighter and very good with a blade. (and honestly probably carried more then one)

holy cow those look great.